Mame Bonsai

Mame Bonsai can be interpreted as miniature Bonsai. They are very popular in eastern world countries like Japan and China. Mame bonsai are so small that they can fit onto your palm top.

Bonsai can be made in a lot of different sizes. The size of a bonsai is generally measured as the distance between the soil and the apex of the bonsai tree. The classification of bonsai based on size can be done as below:

Up to 1 inch in height: Keishi Bonsai

Up to 3 inch in height: Shito Bonsai

Up to 6 inch in height: Mame Bonsai

Up to 8 inch in height: Shohin Bonsai

Up to 16 inch in height: Kifu Sho Bonsai

Up to 24 inch in height: Chu Bonsai

Up to 40 inch in height: Dai Bonsai

Creating small bonsais, is an extremely arduous task considering the fact that you have very small amount of soil and foliage to work with. It becomes essential to understand the dynamics of plant growth in such a constricted environment.

Selecting the right species for your small bonsai adventure is very crucial. Ideally you should go for a plant with naturally small leaves; this will make it easier to train the bonsai as it grows. Due to their extremely small size it would be very difficult to do leaves and root ramifications, you could use a magnifying lens to help you while carrying out these activities on your plant.

Another important aspect of growing a mame is choosing the right kind of pot. You would need to get an equally small pot to give your bonsai the effect of miniaturization.

Watering such small bonsais is a difficult task. You could easily over water these plants, as the pot sizes are small and it becomes difficult to gauge the exact amount of water required by the plants. To create a moist atmosphere for your tree, keep the pot buried in damp sand. This will ensure that the plant is never devoid of moisture, and you would not have to worry a lot about the watering schedule. However you cannot completely do without it.

Considering the fact that mames do not have a lot of growth to support, fertilizers should be used judiciously. You should use dilute fertilizers for your mini bonsai.

Since the size of the pot is small, the amount of soil is also very less. As a result of this the soil looses its fertility very early. Hence you must repot the mame more frequently than you do repotting for normal bonsai trees.

Pruning a mame is a difficult task. Use finger pruning techniques to train your bonsai. You will require special tools for training your bonsai, as the normal shears and cutters could be too big for a mame.

Choosing a very thin and small stand will accentuate the miniature effect of a mame bonsai.